Despite what many people might think, the man who ‘started it all’ with electronic cigarettes hasn’t made a fortune on his invention - and here’s why.

Electronic cigarettes were technically invented by a man named Hon Lik - co-founder of Ruyan (a Chinese E-cig company) and genius behind the idea of the electronic cigarette, or ‘vape pen’ as they are more commonly called nowadays. With how popular E-cigs have become, you might tend to think that Hon Lik is at least incredibly wealthy - but this is surprisingly untrue. While his company has done relatively well for itself, he has received very little in monetary compensation for his patented invention.

Hon Lik began his journey when he lost his father to smoking-induced lung cancer. He tried desperately to break off his own cigarette habit with nicotine patches, but had little success.

The next part of the story sounds more like a fantasy novel than a real-life scenario - but it seems to be the true.

During a night in which Hon forgot to remove one of his nicotine patches, he suffered a terrible nightmare. In this nightmare, he said that he was drowning in a sea of water that later swirled into a massive cloud of vapor - which was where he got the idea for the now-famous electronic cigarette that produced vapor instead of smoke.

In the beginning, Ruyan did very well - and it looked as though Hon Lik stood to make millions off of his device. But the media began to release some bad press about it, and people began to get scared off. His sales began to drop off, and rival companies began to spring up in both China and the US.

He says that these newer companies produced and sold ‘copycats’ of his design - changing them just slightly to avoid having to pay him for his patent. He and his company have filed several lawsuits against a few of them - though he’s only been able to get settlements for a mediocre amount of cash. To make matters worse, he found himself unable to keep them from producing his invention without paying him for it.

Where is Hon Lik now?

Because of the trouble that he’s faced in trying to produce electronic cigarettes, Hon Lik never amassed the riches that he probably should have received for his invention. He is the chief executive of a company called Dragonite International, and may finally be able to reap some significant financial rewards through a possible team-up with a company called Imperial Tobacco - who plans on buying out his patents. But other than that, the E-cig inventor hasn’t made nearly as much as he probably should have made off of his design - especially when you take into account how widespread and widely-used the concept is today.

When asked what his biggest fear for the E-cig is right now, Hon Lik is quick to respond. He says that he’s afraid that governments around the world will begin to classify electronic cigarettes as medical devices, and that they’ll begin to scrutinize and regulate them by standards that they were never intended for.

Hong Kong has already made this leap, and Britain is following suit in 2016 - though the EU Parliament has subsequently rejected this ‘medical regulation’ proposal for the rest of Europe.

In Conclusion

Hopefully Mr. Lik will end up receiving some compensation for his contribution. But whether he does or not, there’s no denying that his invention has changed the world. I’m sure you will agree on this!

For more information about vaping, e-cigarette legislation, to see various e-cig guides, tips and video reviews - visit EcigsUK Blog.